The Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that due to liberalised Flying Training Organisation (FTO) policy of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), India is all set to et eight new Flying Training Academies.
These academies will be set up at five airports across the country – Belagavi and Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Jalgaon in Maharashtra, Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and Lilabari in Assam. The Airports Authority of India had invited bids for setting up the eight FTAs in November 2020, the ministry said.
Aimed at making India a “global flying training hub” and at preventing Indian cadets from leaving the country to get training at foreign academies, these FTAs will also cater the flying training requirements of cadets from the neighbouring countries, the ministry said.
“This initiative will help the Indian flying training sector in becoming more self-sustaining under the Atmannirbhar Bharat initiative,” said the ministry in a statement adding that the five airports have been carefully chosen, considering the “minimal disruption” due to weather issues and civil, military air traffic.
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The parameters on which the bids were called by the AAI for these academies included familiarisation with aviation safety aspects, regulatory mechanisms, experience in the field of training pilots on manned aircraft and the availability of equipment and trainers, it said.
"To make FTOs (flying training organisations) attractive for bidders, AAI reduced the minimum annual rental significantly to Rs 15 lakh. Furthermore, the concept of airport royalty was scrapped to make these ventures business-friendly," the ministry said
